5 Things To Know For Your New Day — Monday, December 14

Where’s Winter? Record-Setting Warmth On Tap For Much Of U.S.

It’s beginning to look a lot like — September? While retailers may be hitting their full holiday shopping season stride, Mother Nature is not doing her part to put people in the Christmas spirit.

Unseasonably mild temperatures are spreading over the eastern half of the country and about 75% of the U.S. population will see the temperature climb over 60°F by the end of the weekend, hardly a winter wonderland. Don’t be surprised to find holiday shoppers wearing shorts while strolling along Michigan Avenue in Chicago this weekend, as temperatures in the low 60s will make it feel more like late September or early October.

Stage Set For Final GOP Debate Of 2015:

Nine candidates will appear in prime-time Tuesday night for the final Republican presidential primary debate of 2015, a critical event that will help shape the contest heading into the Iowa caucuses.

Businessman Donald Trump, the front-runner for the nomination, will again be center stage flanked by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on his right and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on his left, CNN announced Sunday. The six remaining participants in the prime-time contest will be Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

This Is The End Of Fossil Fuels:

For Selina Leem, an 18-year-old from a tiny part of the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific, the adoption of Saturday’s “Paris Agreement” on climate change wasn’t about wonky diplomacy. It was about the survival of her country.

“This agreement is for those of us whose identity, whose culture, whose ancestors, whose whole being is bound to their lands,” she said in the final meeting of the COP21 summit of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.